Winches are used in various industries and are preferably powered (e.g., by a gasoline motor or electric motor). There are many applications or uses for portable winches. Typically they are powered by a gasoline engine.
One limitation or disadvantage of conventional portable winches is that they do not have a reverse gear or any means for driving the drum in reverse to unwind cable from the drum. As a result, to unwind cable it is necessary to free the drum so that it can rotate in reverse as the cable is pulled off the drum. This is not always desirable, however. Among other problems, there is no direct control over the rate at which the cable comes off the drum if they drum is free to rotate.
Although it is possible, and quite conventional, to provide for reverse rotation of a drive shaft through the use of a reverse gear in a transmission, in some mechanical systems (such as portable winches) there is no transmission used. Rather, there is a direct connection between the drive shaft and the component being driven. Also, transmission systems which include a reverse gear can be quite expensive and are naturally more complex in design and construction than transmissions which do not include a reverse gear.
There has not heretofore been provided a portable winch having a simple and effective reversing drive mechanism which can be used between a drive shaft and a driven shaft.